Visiting Day

Most of the schools that I run health clinics at have closed down for the summer.  I'm down to working only two days at week at a seminary that has Southern Hemisphere students at it.  These young women started in February and will finish their sem year in December (sounds so odd to my "summer is June-August" mentality, but in ulpan we also got a "summer" influx of people from Australia and New Zealand in February....).   Anyway, when that school is on a trip, or just full of healthy students who don't have a need to see the nurse, then I get the day off.  Which is what happened one day last week ;)

My plan had been to go to work and then meet up with Barbara, my friend Heidi's mother, who I have known since I was very, very little.  Barbara was here on a 9-day tour around Israel and Jordan and had a brief window of opportunity for a visit Thursday afternoon in Jerusalem (these tours give you precious little time to do anything "off schedule".  Niece Saige was here last week on Birthright [which gives even *less* time off] and, very sadly, we didn't get to see her at all).  

But when my school canceled late in the morning, I suddenly had the whole rest of the day open!  Party!  It meant that I was able to go to one of the big hospitals and visit former Maldener Eliana who was there with her newborn daughter.  Nothing like a little newborn snuggle time to start things off right!  When I called to see if she would be free, she suggested I check when visiting hours were.  It hadn't even occurred to me that there would BE visiting hours (do any hospitals in the US, aside from maybe intensive care units, even have visiting hours any more?!).  Aside from finding out that my proposed visiting time was okay,  I also found out interesting things from the website, such as that "each (mother-baby) ward has spacious rooms, up to three beds per room.  No mother stays in the hall".  Yikes! Sometimes I forget that I am very, very far from the US in many, many ways.....

Then off to see Yehuda Leib, also a former Maldener (for a small community, Malden is pretty well represented here.  At least in my life!).  Yehuda Leib lives in a long-term care facility just outside the Old City walls that has been run by a Christian religious group since the late 1800s .  But, hey, it's Jerusalem, so his roommate also wears a yarmulke and the kitchen of the entire hospital is kosher!  When I arrived, a volunteer was finishing learning Gemara with him, and he told me that every week for Shabbos, a volunteer comes to help him to go shul, since that's the one big thing the facility is lacking--a synagogue (understandably so).

(You can just about feel the history in this building, right?! Before visiting Yehuda Leib, the only thing I knew about this building is that is has bullet holes in the outside of it, a remnant of the 1948 War of Independence between Israel and Jordan)

And then off to my 1.25 hour (did I mention her schedule is jam-packed?!) visit with Barbara.  We had such a nice time walking around the city.  She said she was glad to have the opportunity to see things that weren't on her tour and were more of everyday life (she was surprised to see the lightrail train coming up Yaffo Street--I guess they really hadn't had much of an opportunity to walk around!).

It was certainly interesting going in one afternoon along such a gamut of socioeconomic levels in Jerusalem.  Barbara was staying at one of the nicest hotels in the city (earlier in the day, she asked the people inside the elevator to please hold it for her, only to find out it was Bob Kraft, owner of the Patriots, in town to receive the Genesis Prize--"the Israeli Nobel Prize").  Yehuda Leib was in more of a "historic place" than one with any sort of luxury to it, although the staff seemed truly lovely, which certainly helps make up for not living in the Ritz.

Earthquaaaake(s) (!)

This blog post actually started about two months when Penina's school did a two day earthquake training for the tenth graders (we think it's country-wide for that age, but, hey, like so many things in this country, we really have no idea), since Israel lies on a pretty major earthquake fault line and is supposed to get a "big one" every 100 years or so (and the last one was in 1927, so, yeah, eek).  She described the entire first day as being made up of terrifying videos of earthquakes and their effects, and was not particularly excited for school the next day, assuming it would be more of the same.  She came home totally energized and had had an amazing day learning how to do search-and-rescue, even getting certified as a first responder (with a laminated card that's supposed to actually get her across police barriers [should she so choose/should we so permit]).  The highlight of the day was learning how to use a sledgehammer, after having been taught by the (female) instructors who, with ease, smashed concrete blocks into smithereens.  The upshots were: 1) "using a sledgehammer is a lot of fun" and 2) "don't worry, Israel--if there's a giant earthquake, the tenth graders will save you"😱

Fast forward to last week, when our whole family was woken up smack in the middle of the night by a giant crashing sound.  Half-asleep, we tried to figure out if there was any reason to take action (like go to our "safe room").  Hearing nothing else, we all went back to sleep.  In the morning, I woke up to find this on our balcony:

Which was from the lintel of the doorway to our mirpeset

They sure do build buildings thick around here, eh?!  NOW you see why the tenth graders need to learn to use sledgehammers.

The following night, we were all together in the living/dining room when something odd started happening.  I looked down at my feet, trying to figure out why they were going up and down.  Penina figured it out first and yelled, "EARTHQUAAAAAKE!  EVERYBODY OUTSIDE!" So clearly the training did have its positive effects (and can I mention how proud Nurse Ellen is that her daughter is so safety-oriented?!).  We ran out into the street and discovered that......we were the only ones there.  Because of course the Anglo olim run into the street ;).  Some neighbors didn't even feel it.  Turns out it was only a 4.5 quake, so it counts as one that is felt but not big.

But here's the kicker.  The next day, Penina said, "I wonder if there was an earthquake the night before and THAT'S what made the concrete fall down on the mirpeset?" and Shalom Shachne said he had been wondering the same thing (oops.  Hadn't occurred to me.  I just figured it was shoddy construction).  So we snooped around and found out

Yup, a few minutes before 3 a.m. there had been a 2.7 earthquake.  Not strong enough to be felt, except by our house, I guess!

In sum, Penina seems to have a future as a seismologist.  Or perhaps a gold-medal sledgehammer-ist.  The possibilities are endless!

Passports

Today is the one year anniversary of the US Embassy being moved to Jerusalem.  In honor of that fact (although truthfully it's because I just went to the embassy yesterday), here is my post about renewing US passports.  I didn't think there would be much/anything to say about the process, but I actually found our "quickest trip ever to the US" to be pretty interesting.

First off, the security Jazzy-Our-Car went through was the most intense she's ever undergone since we've owned her.  Two security guards worked her over--running over the outside with explosives-detecting paper, looking under the car with what I would describe as a mirror stuck on a long-handled dust pan, searching the trunk and then searching the engine (having just driven 45 minutes through rush hour traffic, aside from some blatant Wile E. Coyote-type bomb with an alarm clock and a few sticks of dynamite, I wasn't sure what they could see/do in our hot engine, but, then again, I'm not a security expert).

We then waited in the rather long and slow-moving line for American citizens (as opposed to the rather long and slow-moving line for non-citizens applying for travel visas).  I spoke English with reckless abandon, because, hey, I was on US soil(ish.  Google tells me that's not really true).  Although, sadly, the majority of people working outside the embassy were Arab speakers, so it still felt inappropriate to speak English.

At the initial security check, all cell phones were checked in and not returned until we left (having been to the Israeli embassy in Boston before we made aliyah, I was expecting this).  It was fascinating to walk into the main waiting room and find....people TALKING!  Interacting with those they came with and total strangers!  It was CRAZY!  And a stunning contrast to the previous week when I had gone to a similarly large waiting room in our local government and it had been eerily silent as everyone stared down at their phones and ignored everyone else....

When our number was finally called, the guy at the window told me we needed to do one more thing before finalizing the paperwork and we should come back to him after completing it.  "Okay," I said, "and what's your name?" figuring I might need to tell security with whom I needed to speak.  "I can't tell you that" was the response!  I didn't realize working at the embassy was such a high security position, but, then again, if you're an Israeli Arab, maybe it is.

The young man who finalized all our forms had an accent that sounded so familiar I almost asked him where he was from.  He beat me to it after looking at our paperwork, and we found a "landsman" formerly from Worcester :)

last picture I was able to snap before being told "no photos".  Oops!

Post-Pesach

Posting (quite sheepishly) very late for Passover, but I can't let it go by because we had SUCH a good time when my Auntie Paula, Uncle Steven and cousins Jen and Shmulie and their kids Sela and Coby visited.

It was SO special having family we are super close with come and visit (Jen and Shmulie's house is our de facto NY stop and we love spending Shabbos with them.  In fact, when they left, we told them not to worry if they left anything here because Shalom Shachne, Batsheva and Chana would be at their house for Shabbos in only three weeks for Chana's college graduation [woohoo, Chana!])

Here is Auntie Paula ("AP") in front of a painting that her father brought back after visiting Israel in the 1960s. 



Me: "AP--I heard that Grandpa Jack brought this painting back on his lap on the plane". 
AP: "Well, the way I heard it, the painting was rolled up in a tube".
Me: "Oh.  That's kind of disappointing.  I liked my version better!"

Anyway, there was lots of family bonding time:

And we did some pretty unusual things  (By the way, Sela was a natural :)

And some usual things for Pesach.  Like eating a lot!

It was so nice to have family here and let the pressure of "what are we doing on chol hamoed that's totally awesome and amazing because we don't have Sundays here, so there's very little time off aside from these intermediate holiday days, so we better make them count"--let that all just go away with the answer of "We're visiting AP, US and the cousins today".  And that plan always made everyone very, very happy.

"Small Country, Big Dreams"

I find this "space selfie", taken just 22 km (i.e. only a half-marathon!) from the moon's surface breathtaking.  That and the motto of "Small Country, Big Dreams" which made me a little teary the first time I saw it (which was, admittedly, right after Beresheet crashed while trying to land on the moon's surface....)

Hats off to President Rivlin for leading the crowd, that had hoped to watch the landing, in instead singing Hatikva, the national anthem.  I am sure I'm not the only one who stopped my Pesach cleaning, stood and sang along.

Thanks to 89-year-old SpaceIL President (and "serial entrepreneur and serial philanthropist") Morris Kahn, there will hopefully be another attempt.  For now, kudos to SpaceIL and Israel, which became only the seventh country to achieve lunar orbit.  Hopefully in a few more years, we will become the 4th country to land on the moon because, indeed, this is a small country with very big dreams!

Props to Israel Airports Authority for having a sense of humor and putting the lunar landing on its arrival timetable that day.  Too bad they couldn't change that to "final" later ;(

Fun Facts About Israeli Elections (Happening Tuesday!)

1) It's a national holiday--the majority of schools and businesses are closed. and businesses that are open have to pay their employees double salary.

2) The country is about to spend an estimated 3 million nis (over $800,000) offering free public transportation tomorrow so no one can say they didn't vote because it cost too much to get to their voting station

3) Here, voters choose a party, not a candidate.  The parties make lists of the people they will put into the Knesset based on how many seats they earn in the election.  So no one votes for, say, Nehanyahu.  They vote for the Likud party, knowing that he is the top of that party.

4) Driving through our town, there are lots of political signs up. Driving through the extremely religious section of town a few kilometers away, there are also plenty of signs up, but these are discouraging people from voting (don't get me started!)

5) Election season here is TOO SHORT (in my opinion)!  It's just a few months of active campaigning and there are no debates between party leaders. 

6) My call is that Likud will win again.  I think too many people here can't imagine anyone but Bibi doing this job.  But we'll see!

Slowly I ran....

Step by step, inch by inch.  Until I got to, no, not Niagara Falls, but the finish line of the 10K race at the Jerusalem Marathon!

Coolest moments:
--Running with Lori S. as (unofficial) "Team Malden"

--Laboring up Jabotinsky Street (which I decided is the Jerusalem version of the Boston Marathon's "Heartbreak Hill", except that it comes near the end of the race, rather than the middle), and remembering all the times I pushed a double stroller up that thing when we lived off of Jabotinsky when Batsheva and Chana were teeny tiny.....Had I ANY clue what my life would be like 20 years later?! 

--After the race, when I found out that the Marathon uses groovy technology that lets runners put in their bib number and up pops every photo with that number in it.  Pretty awesome use of technology considering there were 40,000 runners.